WHALE WATCHING AT DAVOS, SWITZERLAND:
Per a Davos interview a couple days ago, Soros is short SPX and long U.S. Treasurys.
Larry Fink (CEO of BlackRock … with about $4.5 trillion Assets Under Management) told CNBC at Davos he “thinks the markets will end the year higher. But to get there, the market needs a bit of a shakeout. I do believe there is a need for blood in the street… We need to work out all the excess inventories. In energy the only way that’s going to happen is through bankruptcies of some of the oil companies as they stop pumping. So this is all good. This is a good process actually. This market correction weeds out the weak."
Ray Dalio, founder of the world's largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates (with $155 billion AUM), is worried about growth in the global economy.
“I think a move to a quantitative easing would bolster psychology."
"I think the China situation with the currency is very important…If there's significant currency weakness, that will mean more imported deflation [to the U.S.]. And it'll make things more difficult."
He believes the dollar will be strong temporarily because of a short squeeze. "Emerging countries owe dollars. So they have to buy dollars…. Once that squeeze is over, it undermines the dollar longer term."
James Gorman, CEO at Morgan Stanley, is perplexed: ”It's not a perfect picture…And there is some excessive valuations in the market — no question. But is this the cause of the kind of correction we've seen?"
“Gorman said he follows about 70 stocks closely, including energy, financials, housing, and media stocks, and every one was down "precipitously" in the past three weeks. "What happened? …What was the trigger point here? I'm just not seeing it ... You can imagine a correction off the highs. I'm not seeing this kind of violence."
Scott Minerd, CIO at Guggenheim Partners ($240 billion AUM) thinks the market “…could drop another 10% to around 1650 to 1700. That drop … would represent a buying opportunity…. this is not 2008 or 2009.”
“Wholesale panic” is what’s needed before the market turns… “
William White, former chief economist of the Bank for International Settlements [BIS]: “Debts have continued to build up over the last eight years and they have reached such levels in every part of the world that they have become a potent cause for mischief… It will become obvious in the next recession that many of these debts will never be serviced or repaid, and this will be uncomfortable for a lot of people who think they own assets that are worth something.”
ELSEWHERE:
Lloyd Blankfein, the one who is “doing God’s work” over at GS, made $23 million in 2015 — down $1 million from the year before. Blankfein's compensation included $2 million in base salary and $6.3 million in cash bonus….
“He [also?] received $14.7 million in equity, according to an SEC filing. That excludes a long-term incentive plan that will be reported later this year.”
Blankfein officially became a billionaire in July, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
JPM announced that CEO Jamie Dimon's 2015 total compensation was $27 million, a 35% raise from the year before. Dimon also became a billionaire in 2015.
